Chapter 91: Carve a Mark for Me
Chapter 91: Carve a Mark for Me
“What happened!”
From another direction, one that no one had noticed before, Li Chou was holding his face, looking at the scene before him in utter terror. At this moment, seeing everyone’s eyes gathered on him, he quickly defended himself: “Boss, I’m definitely real, I would never deceive you…”
“Don’t worry, I believe you.”
“Then, then boss, why are you raising your axe…”
Thud…
“I’m really not a fake…”
Thud…
“Boss, you know me, if I were an imposter…”
Thud…
……
“I’m done pretending, I’ll admit it, I’m the fake one, hehehe…”
“Huh?”
Colin was momentarily stunned; this sudden confession almost threw him off. But at this moment, the clone suddenly rushed at him like it was making a suicidal attack, seemingly attempting a last-ditch effort.
Colin hadn’t even brought his axe down when a flash of white light passed, and a Bible with sharp corners struck the clone’s head. The “Li Chou” before him instantly exploded into a pile of ashes.
Sanna had acted. Colin nodded at her without saying anything, his eyes continuing to scan the group. At this point, he remembered that he had chopped off ten heads in a row, and counting the one Shana had just killed, there were a total of eleven. All the strange feelings had disappeared, and everyone present felt a weight lift from their shoulders…
Finally, Colin’s gaze landed on the last remaining Li Chou in the group…
“B-Boss…”
A weak voice came from the figure, as if just waking up from sleep, lacking energy. Li Chou slumped on the ground, dazed, like someone waking up from a nightmare, drenched in sweat.
Colin instinctively raised his hand but didn’t bring the axe down. This time, this one was real.
“Do you know what happened to you?” Colin asked in a deep voice.
“I don’t know, I was aware of everything on this journey, but now it feels like I’m in a dream…”
Li Chou replied, his voice somewhat weak.
Colin nodded, saying nothing more, and scanned the crowd.
[When you set out, there were 21 people, and no one was lost along the way; the group still has 21 people.]
[You finally realize that the trouble was brought on by something like a curse, which has targeted one in your group.]
[After some contact, you now have some understanding of it…]
[Every hour, it will split off a clone, and when the number of clones reaches half of your group, it will strike for real.]
[The more people it occupies, the greater the danger with each casualty.]
“A curse…”
Colin instinctively looked at Li Chou.
The hint didn’t say who was cursed, but after killing so many “Li Chou” clones, it was obvious who had been cursed. No one present interrupted him, and even Li Chou himself sat obediently, allowing Colin to scan him with his eyes.
Everyone knew, as those survivors whom the Lord refers to as “fools” would say in private, Lord is just “recharging his cheat” right now. Once the “cheat” is activated, everything will be resolved…
Colin had no idea what these people were thinking; he was quickly gathering more information about this curse.
[…With your current abilities, you believe you cannot completely eliminate this curse, but can only regularly remove the clones every hour to ensure safety…]
[You can at most use some mystical methods to extract and isolate the ‘curse’ for a time, but this method isn’t very valuable.]
[You realize that if you become distracted, you might forget the current information…]
“So, this means that even if I kill Li Chou now, the curse won’t disappear, and as for mystical methods, the only option left is the ‘The Shield of the Just Knight,’ which isn’t very useful…”
Colin rubbed his forehead, feeling that this was just a random disaster that had befallen them, causing unnecessary suffering.
When the last “cursed body” exploded, Colin knew that the curse’s clone had some intelligence. Without the prompt, it would have been very difficult to see through its real or fake clones.
How did it come about?
[…You cannot comprehend the existence of this thing…]
“…So, it’s saying that its origin cannot be traced? Or is it simply beyond my understanding?”
Colin felt a headache coming on. The system always leads the survivors to their doom, and now, instead of properly being a cheat, it likes to act as a riddle maker from time to time…
Neither of them can be truly reliable.
Wait…
Colin pinched the “soft flesh” on his waist and realized that he had inexplicably gotten distracted, almost forgetting the “main quest”!
And this was while in the “Hunting Time,” he was almost influenced…
Colin glanced at the others, their eyes somewhat dazed, as if they were about to forget what had just happened.
Seeing this, Colin couldn’t help but feel a chill…
Taking a deep breath, as Li Chou in front of him saw Colin like this, thinking the problem was almost solved and wanting to ask what was going on, he suddenly saw Colin raise the axe and bring it down…
Decisive, sharp, without a hint of hesitation…
It’s over!
Li Chou couldn’t block such an attack, but quickly, a shrill scream came from beside him, and he realized he wasn’t dead…
Next to him, there was now a pile of ashes…
It was only then that everyone suddenly snapped back to their senses, reconnecting with their previous memories and realizing that there was a traitor in the group.
“The situation is temporarily resolved.”
Colin said it coldly, briefly explaining to the group what had happened.
“I- I’m cursed?”
Li Chou looked incredulous, but the facts were right in front of him, leaving no room for doubt.
“Yes, although I’m not sure what exactly happened, you were probably targeted as soon as we entered… This underground area is far more dangerous than we imagined…”
Colin spoke slowly, suspecting that this clone had something to do with the ritual at Watt Manor.
Because its style was quite unusual.
Compared to the bloody and violent mutated creatures, its style seemed to come from another world, more eerie and mysterious.
However, that wasn’t the key point.
The key point was that Colin couldn’t keep the “Hunting Time” active all the time, so he needed a way to make sure he could constantly be aware of any issues in the group.
Otherwise, what had just happened would keep happening, over and over again.
Until they were all dead.
After a brief moment of thought, Colin came up with an idea and rolled up his sleeves:
“Sanna, help me carve some words into my arm…”
Pain was the best reminder.
The main danger of this curse came from its ability to infinitely diminish its own presence until the moment it erupted…
If one could be aware of its presence, it wouldn’t be very dangerous, but if one couldn’t…
That would be another story.
“You…” Sanna was taken aback, then said, “…carve words on your arm?”
“Carve a mark…” Colin muttered to himself.
Shana seemed to realize the purpose of this action, extending her pale arm and gently saying:
“If it’s pain you need to remind yourself of, then I’m actually more suitable…”
Colin waved her off and, under the influence of the “Hunting Time,” said without much emotion:
“It’s fine. I won’t be the only one. We all need to carve the characters…”
“No worries, you won’t be left out. We all have to carve the characters…”
“Uh…”